The Toronto Fire Services and the Toronto Professional Fire Fighters’ Association will join the Cpl. Michael W. Simpson Chapter of the Canadian Association of Veterans in United Nations Peacekeeping (CAVUNP) for an unveiling ceremony of a peacekeeping inscription on the Cenotaph at Toronto’s Old City Hall.

August 9 has been designated as Peacekeepers’ Day by the legislatures of Ontario and eight other provinces. On that day in 1974, Syrian forces fired three anti-aircraft missiles at an unarmed Canadian Forces Buffalo aircraft. Nine Canadian Forces members were sacrificed when their aircraft was destroyed. It was the largest loss of life in a single incident in more than 50 years of Canadian peacekeeping operations.

Canada’s peacekeeping veterans have chosen August 9 as Peacekeepers’ Day. The day serves not only to commemorate that tragic incident, but to pay tribute to all those Canadians who have died in the service of peace on United Nations operations in such places as the former Yugoslavia and Afghanistan. Those who have returned from peacekeeping service are also honoured for exercising a proud Canadian tradition.

The Cpl. Michael W. Simpson Chapter of CAVUNP in Toronto was named in his honour since Cpl. Simpson was one of the nine Canadian peacekeepers killed on August 9, 1974. His father, William James (Red) Simpson, died on April 29, 1966. Recognized as a Toronto Fire Services’ line-of-duty death, his name is engraved on the Fallen Fire Fighter Memorials at Queen’s Park and at Harbourfront Fire Station 334.

All veteran peacekeepers, Canadian Forces members, emergency services and City personnel, as well as their families and friends, are welcome to attend this public event.